Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry

#117 - 82 big cylinders with 50 small cylinders of magic to defeat magic

Yang Village.

Behind the mountain, the testing ground.

Wang Chengzhu excitedly crouched in front of the newly produced 82mm Yang Village-made Type 20 mortar.

Since leaving the New First Regiment, he hadn't touched his beloved mortar for a long time. In the Independent Regiment, Wang Chengzhu had only gasoline barrel-type mortars and grenade launchers to operate.

But neither of these were the real artillery pieces in Wang Chengzhu's mind.

Although they were also effective in fighting the Japanese devils, they were definitely not as satisfying as taking down the enemy leaders from thousands of meters away with a mortar!

As an artilleryman, the 60mm mortar was Wang Chengzhu's last insistence.

But if he had a choice, Wang Chengzhu hoped that the bottom line would be the 82mm Type 20!

Because the 60mm mortar could only passively take a beating when facing the Japanese's Type 92 infantry gun, but with the 82mm Type 20, Wang Chengzhu could teach the Japanese artillerymen what a real gunner was!

"Chengzhu, do you know how to use this thing?" Li Yunlong approached the new mortar, his eyes burning with desire, but also with some uncertainty.

"Regimental Commander, who do you think I am? If you can get me an Italian cannon, I'll make the Japanese Type 41 mountain gun kneel down and call me daddy!" Wang Chengzhu said, his face flushed, "Just this 82mm tube, let me try a couple of shots to figure out its performance and I can beat the crap out of the Type 92 infantry gun."

As a professional gunner, Wang Chengzhu naturally had his own pride.

"Hehe, Chengzhu, if you can take out the Japanese Type 92 infantry gun, I'll reward you with half a bowl of the good wine that Old Ren gave me!" Li Yunlong grinned foolishly.

"Regimental Commander, you better watch out, I'll definitely take out a few Type 92 infantry guns for you. You can't go back on your word then, half a bowl for each Type 92 infantry gun!" Wang Chengzhu licked his lips, as if he could already taste the delicious wine.

That was something brought by Boss Ren, it should be much better than the Regimental Commander's sweet potato liquor, right?

"Boom!" Wang Chengzhu operated the mortar and fired a shot at a 45-degree angle! The shell whistled through the mountains and landed in the target area. There was no flat ground for more than 2,000 meters in the valley. To find a distance of more than 3,000 meters for the Yang Village testing ground, it was necessary to cross two large and small mountains.

Since choosing this place as the testing ground, not only were sentries arranged around to prevent personnel from entering, but also marker lines were pre-marked with hemp rope every 100 meters in the 3,000-meter range.

So after the shell flew over, almost a minute later, the information about the landing point was transmitted back from the hand-held radio, "It's over 2,500 meters, about halfway between 2,500 meters and 2,600 meters. The landing point deviates from the set center line by about 7 meters!"

"Hehe, this distance is not bad!" Li Yunlong grinned very brightly. The original version of the Type 20's high-explosive shell with the maximum charge had a maximum range of 2,850 meters. Now the high-explosive shell tested by Wang Chengzhu had not yet reached the maximum charge, but this result was already very close to the original version.

"One more shot!" Wang Chengzhu adjusted the mortar, which had been vibrated off course, aimed the barrel at the center line, adjusted the angle to about 47 degrees, and fired again.

"Distance 2,420 meters, center line deviation 2 meters!" The target reporter on the opposite side reported.

"Okay, place a target on the 2,450-meter center line, I want to try a precision strike!" Wang Chengzhu shouted loudly into the hand-held radio. After speaking, he began to carefully adjust the position and angle of the barrel.

With only 30 meters of distance, the angle only needed to be slightly lowered. The new mortar had not yet implemented a distance scale, and these would have to wait until someone calculated it, and Wang Chengzhu slowly tested and verified it before it could be marked, otherwise no one would know how far it could actually shoot.

After the third shell was fired, the other side quickly reported with surprise that it had hit the target. A wooden frame imitating the Type 92 infantry gun was blown to pieces!

As expected of the artillery god Wang Chengzhu, he figured out the performance in a few strokes and began to show his power.

Old Li watched from the side with some envy, but this thing really depended on talent. Among so many people in the Independent Regiment, Chengzhu had only selected more than 20 seedlings after a long time.

"Chengzhu, can the method you used to hit accurately just now be popularized?" Li Yunlong tried to ask.

"Regimental Commander, this is aiming after the range has been measured. As long as you keep a good eye on the angle, you can hit very accurately. There is no technique in this, but when we fight, we must rely on ourselves to measure the range, and accurate measurement is what tests our technique. Now the thumb ranging method we use is easy to learn but difficult to master. I have taught everyone the methods and experiences, but everyone has to ponder and practice more on their own," Wang Chengzhu said.

Wang Chengzhu was also very helpless.

Thumb ranging was already like an instinct to him. With a raise of his thumb, he was almost eighty or ninety percent accurate. But this thing could only be understood implicitly and could not be explained in words. Wang Chengzhu himself did not have much education, and relied on this talent.

"Hey, ask Old Ren in a couple of days if he can get some useful gadgets for ranging. He has seen a lot of foreign things, maybe there is something that can measure the range," Li Yunlong muttered casually.

"Regimental Commander, if we really have that thing, our artillery will hit wherever we point. But I have never heard of such a thing," Wang Chengzhu interjected.

Under Wang Chengzhu's test, the performance of the new cannon was quite ideal. The barrel performed stably after firing more than a dozen shots in a row. The quality of the steel pipe and steel provided by Ren Zhong was impeccable. According to Wang Chengzhu's own estimation, it was even a bit stronger than the Type 20. As for the difference in maximum distance, it was estimated to be due to the quality and quantity differences of the mortar charge. However, the newly produced shells were now very stable, both in terms of distance and kill radius, so Wang Chengzhu did not suggest changing them.

This meant that the Yang Village-made mortar could be finalized. Wang Chengzhu finally had his own new cannon and began to conduct high-intensity training for his artillery platoon.

As a supplement to the 82mm mortar, Ren Zhong had originally favored the 60mm mortar as a company and platoon-level firepower. However, due to the serious lack of carrying capacity, Ren Zhong felt that there was no need to waste bringing 60mm tubes from the main plane. Instead, he chose to use the 82mm mortar as a long-range firepower, while the short-range firepower continued to use the Japanese grenade launcher design.

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Based on the Japanese Type 89 grenade launcher, which was creatively imitated and improved by the Eighth Route Army in the original time and space, Ren Zhong appropriately thickened and lengthened the original grenade launcher tube, improved the warhead curve of the projectiles, and canceled the internal rifling that was difficult to process, directly changing it to a smoothbore structure. This reduced the production process requirements a lot compared to the original.

Using the high-quality carbon steel directly made into preliminary steel plates by the open-hearth furnace, and then forging them into "20 cm thick and 30 cm wide" steel strips, the spiral wound welding method was used to make a 500 mm long launch tube. Compared with the Japanese original version, it increased by more than 100 mm. Although this hybrid variant of the grenade launcher increased a lot of weight, the actual measured maximum range could reach 900 meters, and the performance was improved a lot compared to the Japanese original version.

To a certain extent, it could replace the forward throwing firepower of the 60mm mortar, and the grenade launcher could just form a suppression for attacking the enemy's machine gun fire points.

For Ren Zhong, it was feasible to temporarily replace the 60mm mortar at the company and platoon level.

However, in this way, the production of grenade launchers was a bit iron-consuming, and Zhang Wanhe and Li Yunlong had to be busy concentrating the blacksmiths near the base area to Yang Village to carry out the production of grenade launchers nearby.

Due to the completely self-produced and self-sold materials and mature technology, the production capacity of grenade launchers in Yang Village quickly soared to about 100 units per month before the successful development of the 82mm mortar.

However, the problem of gunners became more prominent.

Second update